_Burn his History_ was straightway in every one's mouth; and the bookseller, if he did not follow the advice _à pied de la lettre_, actually wasted, as the term is, or sold for waste paper, some hundred copies, and buried the rest of the impression in the profoundest depth of a damp cellar, as an article never likely to be called for, so that now hardly a copy can be procured undamaged by damp and mildew. It has been for some time, however, rising,--is rising,--and the more it is read and known, the more it ought to rise in public estimation and demand.--_Harmonicon_. * * * * * ITALIAN, AT THE KING'S THEATRE. A Liberal and sensible correspondent of the _Harmonicon_ writes thus: Mrs. Wood is not the first of our countrywomen who has attained the same rank; the names of Billington, Cecilia Davies (called _Inglesina_,) and in remoter times, that of Anastasia Robinson, (afterwards Countess of Peterborough,) will immediately occur to the musical reader; but, with the exception of the latter, who lived at a time when the Italian opera in England was in its infancy, Mrs. Wood is, if I mistake not, the first Englishwoman who has achieved that distinction without a certificate of character from Italy. Even Billington was not thought worthy of our opera stage until she had delighted the audiences of San Carlo, the Scala, and the Fenice. Mrs. Wood, on the other hand, is our own, and wholly our own; she has not basked in the suns of Naples, nor breathed the musical atmosphere of Venice or Milan; yet I, who am an old stager, like Iago, "nothing if not critical," and have heard every _prima donna_ from Billington down to this present writing, have seldom uttered any _brava_ with more unction than when listening to Mrs. Wood's _Angelina_ and _Ottavia_.